Li’s dream run at Dell ends; Tiger eliminated too

From the PGA TOUR

China’s Haotong Li crashed out of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play as he lost 6 and 5 to Kevin Kisner of the United States in the Round of 16 on Saturday morning in Austin, Texas.

The big casualty on the day though was Tiger Woods, who was eliminated in the afternoon semi-finals 1-up by the unheralded Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark to join a long list of fancied players on the sidelines In the Round of 16, Tiger had beaten the in-form Rory McIlroy 2&1 in a highly-anticipated match that did not disappoint.

The others joining  Bjerregaard in the last-four were Italy’s Francesco Molinari and Americans Matt Kuchar and 2018 Dell Match Play runner-up Kisner,

Disappointing end

The 23-year-old Li’s run at Austin Country Club ended in a disappointing note as Kisner made light work of the match. Kisner was 3-up after an eight-foot birdie putt at the first and pars on the next two holes.

Another Kisner birdie at the fifth extended the lead. Li, reaching the Round of 16 for the first time in his second Match Play start, bogeyed three of his last six holes and hit just four of 10 fairways while Kisner hit 9 of 10 as the match ended on the 13^th green.

Kisner said: “He made a couple of bogeys early, and I was fortunate enough to make par and threw in a few birdies. Played solid all day, probably the most solid I’ve played all week.”

Out of gas

Li conceded he was running on fumes after beating Ryder Cup star Alex Noren and world no. 3 Brooks Koepka in the group matches. He played 19 holes on Friday following his 1-up loss to Tom Lewis which required a sudden-death playoff against Noren. Li won after one hole to get through to the Round of 16. 

“Just couldn’t focus today. I had a couple of bad mistakes. I mean, you can’t do that in match play,” said Li. 

“Like I said, ran out of energy. It’s very good experience, especially through yesterday, it’s pretty good. If I play my best golf, I can compete with everyone. So I just have to work hard and get my game going.”

The Chinese star, who is hoping to become the first golfer from his country to play in the Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia in December, is looking forward to returning to Austin for another crack.

“It’s a lot going on. You need to go through it and focus. It’s hard to focus. Just need to do better job next time,” he said.

Quarter-final results

Francesco Molinari (7) bt Kevin Na (57), 6 and 5

Kevin Kisner (48) bt Louis Oosthuizen (19), 2 and 1

Matt Kuchar (23) bt Sergio Garcia (26), 2-up

Lucas Bjerregaard (50) bt Tiger Woods (13), 1-up

Follow the action: World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play

Also read: Asian challenge alive at Dell matchplay; Li takes Koepka down